ST. LOUIS _ A bunch of castoffs put on a pitching clinic Tuesday night in the heartland.
A 4-2 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium came in a game in which the Padres relied on a cadre of relievers, all five of whom have to some extent resurrected their careers in San Diego.
"Just a ragtag group of pirates out there," Adam Cimber said last week when talking about the bond forged by bullpen mates who share the common struggle of just finding a way to make it in the big leagues.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, who has been among the best starters in the National League this season after returning from three years spent in Japan, was his usual lethal at times.
But Eric Hosmer's lead-off home run, two infield singles and two more that got to the outfield grass gave the Padres a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning.
That came after left-hander Matt Strahm, who might be a starter one day but first has to come all the way back from a severe knee injury, began the game with three perfect innings.
And it came before Cimber, a 28-year-old side-arming rookie followed with two more perfect innings.
Harrison Bader's dribbling single to the left side leading off the sixth inning broke up the Padres' perfection, but Cimber got Yairo Munoz on a double play grounder and struck out pinch-hitter Dexter Fowler on three pitches to end the inning.
Together, Strahm and Cimber (3-2) threw 64 pitches, 47 of them strikes. They threw a first-pitch strike to 13 of the 18 batters they faced.
There was no reasonable way to expect them to be better.
Mikolas (7-2) left after six innings having allowed the three runs on six hits and throwing 61 strikes among his 88 pitches.
The Padres took a 4-0 lead off Mike Mayers in the top of the seventh on Manuel Margot's lead-off double, a sacrifice bunt by A.J. Ellis (whose single had scored two runs in the fourth) and pinch-hitter Christian Villanueva's RBI grounder.
Only the normally reliable Craig Stammen, the 34-year-old right-hander who spent 2016 working his way back through the minor leagues following flexor tendon surgery and who many in the Padres bullpen credit with helping them focus on aggressively attacking the zone, stumbled in the all-reliever effort.
Stammen, whose ERA in 30 1/3 innings coming in was 1.78, entered in the bottom of the seventh and allowed two runs on three singles and a groundout that cut the Padres' lead.
Kirby Yates, claimed off waivers three weeks into last season, allowed a single in a scoreless eighth inning.
Brad Hand, claimed off waivers two days into the 2016 season, earned his 20th save with a hitless ninth inning.
It was the second time in six games the bullpen combined for a victory, having beaten the Braves 3-1 last Wednesday.
The bullpen games have been necessitated by Joey Lucchesi being on the disabled list. The relievers could be called on to fill another game Sunday in Atlanta.
